Destiny's universe is a densely woven ball of strings, each string a piece of some endless myth. In some incarnation, early in its conception, they coexisted with the characters that inhabited those myths, or became those myths themselves. But the father of the Destiny universe, Joseph Staten, left Bungie mid-way through the first game's development.
So, we received a story that constantly evolved over each expansion. Pieces of Staten's original vision of a starlit frontier were pieced together to create Vanilla Destiny. But the result was a myth without characters; one the player was forced to occupy alone. So Bungie's writers reassembled Staten's story into "Grimoire Cards," each telling pieces of tales of the heroic, intrepid and monstrous characters that inhabited his universe.
To players weary of the empty, silent world, this grimoire was a promise for something greater. After 'The Taken King' expansion, the hunger for this lore grew. We knew Destiny's universe to be deeper than met the eye; the Hive 'Book of Sorrows' was testament to this. And with 'Rise of Iron's tale of the earlies Guardians, The Iron Lords, we champed at the bit for Destiny 2, a game to manifest the franchise' full potential.
Destiny 2's campaign was good. It told a succinct story. It had a beginning, middle, and end. But throughout, it made absolutely clear that it had no intention of being either science-fiction, nor fantasy. The mythic creatures, worlds, and magic of the original universe was pushed aside in favor of a straight-forward military campaign. It was good.
But for those of us invested in the world and characters of Destiny, we knew that 'The Curse of Osiris' would be for us. Osiris is, after all, a character straight from Destiny legend; the central figure of Staten's original vision for Destiny. He was a man whose words were made doctrine, and whose questions threatened to tear our preconceptions of the world apart.
Then, The Curse of Osiris dropped. Like a thud. The story was painfully unambitious, giving us nothing new to learn of The Vex. And Osiris himself was just a cardboard cutout of a man who appeared for 20 seconds to pat us on the back and wink to the camera. Whatever substance or mystery Staten had once imbued into Osiris had wasted away, like a tasty steak…with freezer burn.
Bungie themselves acknowledged this, and sought to remedy the situation. They announced a digital comic, "The Fall of Osiris" to delve deeper into the character's backstory. What are Osiris' teachings? What lead to his exile? What does he still have to teach us? These are questions that Destiny still have, and this comic may possibly answer.
So, is "The Fall of Osiris" worth a read? In my opinion, yes.
It's not the greatest comic you'll ever read, or even one of the better ones. It tells a functional story, and gives us snippets to piece together a larger story. We get a taste of Osiris, but not a novelization. It's aware of the grimoire, and knows exactly what readers want filled in. Did you have questions about The Speaker? So do characters in 'The Fall of Osiris.' The comic's strength is that it knows what its readers want, and it gives it to them.
Don't go in expecting story revelations or mouth-watering lore. Bungie's here to round our the edges of a character, and it does it reasonably well. Osiris' attitudes, agendas and actions make far more sense when you see him interact with others, and respond to characters of legend. Oh yes, Saint-14 makes an appearance, as do other legends such as Andal Brask.
As we transitioned from Destiny 1 to Destiny 2, hard-core players were shunned by Bungie in favor of casual players who wanted an easier, more shallow game. Bungie realized their mistake and are in the process of fixing it. But Destiny 2 also shunned players who loved its lore, and Bungie is addressing them here. 'The Fall of Osiris,' is a decent first step toward fixing that.
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